Digital in G20 – Single Point of Truth

Last Quarter of CY2020 marked the milestone launch of the third largest 5G Network rollout in Germany by Markus S?der, the Chief Minister of Bavaria. This is not only required to address the Funkl?cher (Reception Voids – Human handsets) but also to improve Vehicle Connectivity along the Autobahns for sustainable transportation based on non-fossil fuels. Logistics Business impact is from Truck Volume & Weight issues in compliance, Loss of time from Maintenance, Time to recharge Energy, Oversight on Drive system Cooling performance on long drives etc. Vehicle Connectivity has a direct impact on the Business Model of Goods movement on Autobahns and is a GDP impact.?

Last Quarter of CY2021 sees the similar strategic launch of Chiefminister’s Dashboard by Mr.M.K Stalin for Digital Governance in the State of Tamilnadu in India.

I clearly remember my days in College of Engineering Guindy (CEG) and the massive clean up of City of Madras (a.k.a Chennai) by the then Mayor, none other than the current Chief Minister. At those times when Central Chennai (High Court and vicinity) and North Chennai (Moolakadai Junction) were known for the long-needed administrative correction, it was the Mayor who cleansed Central Chennai and North Chennai despite internal inertia.

It is with the same vigour and administrative valour that M.K Stalin is taking up the Digital Governance Dashboard and it is with the only aim to crack the whip on the obsolete, distributed ?and dysfunctional Administration which reminds of the remanence of British Colonial era. To be precise it is on this day 23.December.2021 the Department of Information Technology gets involved in the Multi Department Digital Governance in TN to provide tracking and oversight to the Administrative Chief of the region.

Some preamble statistics to drive home the point on how essential TN regional Digital Governance is

1)????TN contribution to GDP is 300 Billion USD and in 2021 roughly is of the size of Finland Economy (Quelle : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_states_and_union_territories_by_GDP )

2)????TN accounts for 8% of Global Forex Inward Remittances to India (Quelle : Page 47 - Reserve Bank of India Report - Globalising People: India’s Inward Remittances)

We really are talking about Ease of doing Business in a huge economy here which is now being transformed through Analytical Dashboards and Digital Governance.

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Digital Twins of Chennai - Tax Revenue Administration

Chennai is the Silicon Valley of India when it comes to Property records digitalization. Bangalore is way beyond in maintaining Digital records of Property transactions and most importantly Property ownership. Bangalore can call itself TecHalli but it is still in Kindergarten stages in Digital Governance when compared to Chennai.

Water is more valuable than Fossil fuels in Chennai. Elections are lost in Chennai based on the performance of Chennai Metrowater Department. Remember Chennai gets lot lesser rainfall and suffers from severe hot weather when compared to the incessant rains of Bangalore. To avoid losing further elections based on one single Department performance, the “rich” City of Chennai literally treats Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metrowater Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) as two entities (in Tax collections and Operational funds that is). Allocation of funds from Tax Revenues to different departments works very differently in Chennai and Bangalore. In Chennai, CMWSSB collect 3.5% of Corporation Tax Half-yearly (if my memory tells me right). Property Tax due from a Property ID in Chennai is paid partly to each of the entities.

Meine Güte es ist ein Fall der Dopplete Verwaltungsaufwand! But the double Administration and Tax collection nightmare is well worth it to not lose elections from poor CMWSSB Department performance in water distribution to the electorate.

Where does Chennai get in digitally wrong?! It is in the API interface between Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metrowater in determining the Ownership of the Property. When generating the Tax Demand and Tax Receipt, CMWSSB Servers do not invoke a REST-ful API on Chennai Corporation Servers, it fetches the data from a local copy in CMWSSB IT system which remains obsolete for years if not decades.

Hell breaks loose with every Property transaction as Chennai Corporation updates ownership records. Now CMWSSB expects pending dues to be cleared before the CMWSSB duplicate Ownership is updated. Look at this from the Tax Payer cum Property owner perspective. Does it serve the interest of the Property Owner to have a Tax receipt generated under someone else’s name after securing the asset & what rights does the wrong owner get to claim by having some records still showing him as the rightful owner of the Property?! Litigations galore through Digital API shortfalls in CMWSSB IT implementation. Worst part is that 3.5% tax revenue stops to the state with immediate effect.

Perhaps in a light sense of humour we can call it Digital Twins of Chennai City !

But please don’t expect the digital twins to resemble and feedback to each other.

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Drawing a Parallel to Automotive Infotainment Systems – Single Point of Truth

Automotive Infotainment Systems influence key decision making in the purchase of a new vehicle in most of Europe. Hence most of the big Automotive Logos like Stellantis, BMW and Daimler tend to shift gears in owning the Infotainment System Stack in the vehicle they launch. Basically all Automotive Logos are big time System Integrators of non-core technology (like Seating, HVAC, Lighting etc) but Infotainment does not appear non-core any longer for Automotive Business models.

Automotive Infotainment systems are Audio and Multimedia amalgamation and are often implemented with multiple processors. A Vehicle Interface processor which has most of the time critical realtime requirements covered and at least an Application Processor which has 95% Audio and Multimedia workload. This is an over-simplified view as Application Processors have Multiple cores for Applications, Connectivity and Security, but an over-simplified view is sufficient for all practices purposes in this context.

Both the Vehicle Interface Processor and the Application processor have data to deal with across Crank cycles and Service cycles. The Vehicle Interface processor deploys a NVM (Non-Volatile Memory) and the Application Processor deploys Persistence Design. Without getting into the Technical details of NVM and Persistence design and Architectural gotchas on falling/rising power curves during Ignition Cranking and many other scenarios like Window Heating, let us focus on the purpose.

Both NVM and Persistence Memory are with the only intent to provide APIs to all Applications and Clients which need the same information stored and NVM Manager and Persistence Manager APIs provide the divine thing called “Single Point of Truth”.

If you draw a parallel between Automotive Infotainment Applications and Chennai Corporation / Chennai Metrowater, one could see that by making local data copies CMWSSB has a clear issue with “Single Point of Truth” in Data integrity.

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Conclusion

The Tamilnadu Digital Governance Dashboard is a making of God with all intent to boost economy, accelerate lending and credit uptake and improve Ease of Doing Business in a 300 billion USD economy. The Digital Twins in Data integrity of CMWSSB is a making of man.

Till the REST-ful API is implemented and the data held between 2 parts of TN administration in IT Servers are kept in sync, the metrics of the Digital Governance will be skewed towards one Department or the other in the state administration.

With the Data Protection Bill in India introducing Penal provisions in favour of the Data Principal for Data integrity issues, it is better for the State Administration to fix the REST-ful API between the Digital Twins to arrest the bottom-line leak in State finances.

?Update : Need to make a correction that the right term is "Single Source of Truth".

(Views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the Author in private capacity)